Tamara came to America from the Ukraine as a child and attended school in New York. After singing in Russian restaurants and making some minor appearances in Broadway shows she finally tasted success in the1933 operetta, Roberta, in which she sang the show’s most winning tune, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” with Leo Reisman’s Orchestra.

She had a night club act in 1936 before returning to Broadway in a show that flopped but introduced “I’ll Be Seeing You” and “I Can Dream, Can’t I?” Later that same year she also introduced “Get Out of Town” in Cole Porter’s Leave It to Me (1938).

Tamara died prematurely in the crash of the Yankee Clipper in Portugal which was also carrying singer Jane Froman on her way to entertain troops. Froman survived and her story was told in the film With a Song in My Heart (1952).